Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in Horses
Domestication has changed the natural evolutionary trajectory of horses by favoring the reproduction of a limited number of animals showing traits of interest. Reduced breeding stocks hampered the elimination of deleterious variants by means of negative selection, ultimately inflating mutational loa...
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doaj-4fbe52ee7fcc453897e959f61df717f02020-11-24T21:27:42ZengMDPI AGGenes2073-44252019-08-0110964910.3390/genes10090649genes10090649Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in HorsesLudovic Orlando0Pablo Librado1Laboratoire d’Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d’Imagerie de Synthèse, CNRS UMR 5288, Université de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, 31000 Toulouse, FranceLaboratoire d’Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d’Imagerie de Synthèse, CNRS UMR 5288, Université de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, 31000 Toulouse, FranceDomestication has changed the natural evolutionary trajectory of horses by favoring the reproduction of a limited number of animals showing traits of interest. Reduced breeding stocks hampered the elimination of deleterious variants by means of negative selection, ultimately inflating mutational loads. However, ancient genomics revealed that mutational loads remained steady during most of the domestication history until a sudden burst took place some 250 years ago. To identify the factors underlying this trajectory, we gather an extensive dataset consisting of 175 modern and 153 ancient genomes previously published, and carry out the most comprehensive characterization of deleterious mutations in horses. We confirm that deleterious variants segregated at low frequencies during the last 3500 years, and only spread and incremented their occurrence in the homozygous state during modern times, owing to inbreeding. This independently happened in multiple breeds, following both the development of closed studs and purebred lines, and the deprecation of horsepower in the 20th century, which brought many draft breeds close to extinction. Our work illustrates the paradoxical effect of some conservation and improvement programs, which reduced the overall genomic fitness and viability.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/10/9/649horsegenomicsdeleterious variantsmutational loadsnegative selection |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ludovic Orlando Pablo Librado |
spellingShingle |
Ludovic Orlando Pablo Librado Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in Horses Genes horse genomics deleterious variants mutational loads negative selection |
author_facet |
Ludovic Orlando Pablo Librado |
author_sort |
Ludovic Orlando |
title |
Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in Horses |
title_short |
Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in Horses |
title_full |
Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in Horses |
title_fullStr |
Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in Horses |
title_full_unstemmed |
Origin and Evolution of Deleterious Mutations in Horses |
title_sort |
origin and evolution of deleterious mutations in horses |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Genes |
issn |
2073-4425 |
publishDate |
2019-08-01 |
description |
Domestication has changed the natural evolutionary trajectory of horses by favoring the reproduction of a limited number of animals showing traits of interest. Reduced breeding stocks hampered the elimination of deleterious variants by means of negative selection, ultimately inflating mutational loads. However, ancient genomics revealed that mutational loads remained steady during most of the domestication history until a sudden burst took place some 250 years ago. To identify the factors underlying this trajectory, we gather an extensive dataset consisting of 175 modern and 153 ancient genomes previously published, and carry out the most comprehensive characterization of deleterious mutations in horses. We confirm that deleterious variants segregated at low frequencies during the last 3500 years, and only spread and incremented their occurrence in the homozygous state during modern times, owing to inbreeding. This independently happened in multiple breeds, following both the development of closed studs and purebred lines, and the deprecation of horsepower in the 20th century, which brought many draft breeds close to extinction. Our work illustrates the paradoxical effect of some conservation and improvement programs, which reduced the overall genomic fitness and viability. |
topic |
horse genomics deleterious variants mutational loads negative selection |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/10/9/649 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT ludovicorlando originandevolutionofdeleteriousmutationsinhorses AT pablolibrado originandevolutionofdeleteriousmutationsinhorses |
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